Instructional Design Pathways

Hello friends,

I am teacher looking to get into instructional design, with the possibility of pursuing other job opportunities outside of school. I found WGU, being most cost effective has two programs available with instructional design courses.

(M.Ed.) Master's in Learning & Technology Degree Program | WGU

Master's in Instructional Design (M.Ed.) Degree Program Online | WGU

I am concerned that the instructional design program won't be accepted for a salary increase for me. Would the learning and technology program be a safer choice for me to pursue both public school and instructional design?

Another university I am looking into specifically states that their MS in ID is not accepted as a rank change for teachers, yet their new Master's in ED with an ID area will count be accepted.

WKU Instructional Design | Western Kentucky University
Masters Of Advanced Teacher Education - STE | Western Kentucky University (wku.edu)

Any advice is always appreciated.

 

If you’re doing this for a salary increase with your current organization or collective bargaining agreement, our advise on degree options won’t matter. You just have to do what aligns with your org or CBA. Worth noting though that the real money from ID or Learning & Design work is not in education, but moonlighting for corporate training.

 

I see my program at Anderson University is right in the middle of the pack on that list at GetEducated. The one thing I want to mention is also program length. The program I did at Anderson University only took a year - and for me, with my employer ending up covering about 40% of the cost, it was a bargain. Also, although I enjoyed my program well enough, it seemed really focused on education - like an expansion of what a teacher might get in their undergrad. For my applications in my career (which would be more about training in a corporate environment...)- I suppose I was hoping more for a program focused on "how to build an effective online course" type of things. We touched on that stuff - and I did get value out of the program, but it felt like it was much more theoretical and about different learning models and such. After I was done I felt like I still needed to go over to ATD (Association for Talent Development) or even Udemy and take a focused, practical class about "backward design" and how to apply it to building online training modules. It reminded me again of how academia can spend a lot of time on theory and not quite enough on hands-on "vocational" skills. Having said all of that, if you just want the credential, I'd look at the most affordable options first . You can learn anything else you think you need to outside of the program through other resources..IMO.